Carrot "lox" crostinis — slices of toasted bread topped by orange ribbons of carrots folded over slices of ripe red tomatoes and red onions — greeted guests as they took their seats at Spork Cafe and Catering in Suamico for a seven-course tasting menu.

An all-vegetarian seven-course tasting menu.

In truth, every dish to follow the crostinis wasn't just vegetarian, it was vegan — including the chocolate cake.

In between, the cauliflower fried "chicken" pieces delivered a long-lingering blast of heat.

If any of the 30 guests were asking "Where's the beef?" (or pork or chicken), you certainly couldn't hear them over laughter and jovial conversations reverberating throughout the restaurant's intimate event building.

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Eloise Massee, a seventh-grader at Bay View Middle School, reached out to Spork Cafe & Catering to do a vegetarian tasting menu as part of a school project.(Photo: Daniel Higgins/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

The only time the crowd quieted down was when Bay View seventh-grader Eloise Massee introduced each dish. While Spork head chef Jaclyn Adams and staff prepped, cooked and plated all seven courses, Massee was the catalyst.

During her introduction and welcome to the event, Massee admits she's not a full-time vegetarian at home but has become concerned about the sustainability of meat production. Massee chose this topic for a school project that began last October and will culminate in a presentation in May.

A menu was placed on each plate, next to that was a tri-fold pamphlet summarizing Massee's research, citing enough credible sources to satisfy the most critical newspaper editors. Her goal isn't necessarily to convert everyone to vegetarianism as much as it is to reduce overall meat consumption.

Yes, a salad was among the courses served, featuring microgreens from nearby Twin Elm Gardens and a refreshingly bright, citrusy dressing.

A bit of vegan "bacon" mimicked the crispness and smoky flavors that made me wish there was more topping the black bean soup.

Most surprising to me was the meat-like textures in the walnut taco and jackfruit "crab" cakes.

Dawn Ashenbrenner, Weston, a vegetarian since 1999, stopped eating meat because "I never cared much for it, and I wanted to challenge myself by seeing how long I could last." Nearly 20 years later, she says she has no regrets, plus it's getting easier to dine out. "Most restaurants have a vegetarian selection and they’ve moved beyond the standard pasta primavera to some really fascinating dishes."

Brett Teüke, Two Rivers, says he and a couple co-workers tried going vegetarian to see how it went. That was nearly two years ago. "At first it was extremely hard not only to get used to not eating meat, especially if I was out with friends drinking, but it was also difficult just eliminating it completely from my everyday life." He admits that he misses meat sometimes but feels he can continue living without it. Though he's finding dining out poses some challenges, "especially in this area. I find myself having to order appetizers sometimes like cheese curds or mozzarella sticks or something."

Roberta Zyduck, Fond du Lac, and her husband are vegan at home for more than a decade, but will go vegetarian when they go out if vegan options are lacking.

"We call ourselves accidental vegans," says Zyduck. "We didn’t set out to be vegan as a goal. After watching the documentary 'Food Inc.,' we started looking into changing our dietary lifestyle, and (made a) commitment to not eat meat for two weeks. After the two weeks, we had both come to the conclusion that we weren’t interested in going back to eating meat. We have never regretted that decision."

For vegans and vegetarians in Wisconsin, Zyduck says the key is always to plan ahead.

"We have been invited to events where literally the only thing we could eat were carrot sticks. Living in Fond du Lac, I can say that we don’t go out to eat much in town. We usually travel to Milwaukee, Madison or even Appleton if we’re looking to go out for a nice dinner."

That might be changing, though:

"I can honestly say that the amount of vegan products in stores, and vegan options in restaurants has grown quite a bit in the last five years. The best thing about this lifestyle is how open your options become. I eat foods that I have never before eaten."

"The vast majority of family and friends do not understand my choices and it is a constant topic of conversation," says Siudzinski. "There is teasing, of course, but it’s mostly questions about what I will and won’t eat and why.

"There’s also the constant question about protein, which is annoying, and not even a real issue. I’ve run several marathons as a vegetarian, and I get plenty of protein.

Finding vegetarian options in Green Bay, says Siudzinski, is much more challenging than it was when she lived in Seattle and Chicago.

"I’ve eaten more dive-bar grilled cheese than I have ever cared to, but I understand it’s a life choice I made. Don’t get me wrong, I love some pasta and grilled cheese sometimes, but a good stir fry with vegetables is always a good option to have."

Hannah Pisarski, Stevens Point/Waukesha, became a vegetarian at the start of her freshman year in high school.

"At first it was because I wanted to save the animals, and now it has become so much more than that. It has become like a religion to me. It is something I am proud of and want to share with others."

She doesn't think that it's hard to become or be a vegetarian, but "you just can’t be as lazy as you used to be. I found myself eating meat out of the convenience of it. It was easier to make a ham and cheese sandwich than make a veggie bowl."

Alicia Proft, Appleton, says she has followed a vegan diet since June 2014.

After seeing slaughterhouse footage and how animal products are produced, she was "shocked, disgusted and extremely saddened."

Fully supported by friends and family now, Proft says it wasn't always that way.

"In the beginning, as any concerned loved one might be, they were skeptical that I wouldn’t get 'everything I need' from just plants. Eating animal products daily and at every meal was something they were taught, and grew up with. It was a part of their belief system, and so, passed down to me. Challenging that belief system was very difficult at times, and no doubt, there was some arguing. But as they continued to watch me flourish and get stronger within this lifestyle, they no longer questioned it."

Richelle Fleming, Wausau, was raised a vegetarian because of her father's religion and remains one "simply because the thought of eating a dead animal disgusts me. When people ask me about it, I equate it to watching 'Fear Factor' and seeing somebody eating a cow eyeball; it just doesn't appeal to me."

"Ultimately, my stance boils down to: if I need meat to survive, I’ll eat it; however, in a thriving capitalist economy with a massive variety of foodstuffs, I have an abundance of options that don’t require me to consume an animal."

Finding options when dining out, says Hoffmann, has gotten much easier over the years.

"Back when I went veggie, there weren’t a lot of choices in the Green Bay area — Kavarna has long been a go-to, ethnic eateries (Asian/Mexican/Italian) typically have meatless offerings, and there have always been salad bars — but now when choosing a restaurant, my family and I (all vegetarian) can find meal choices just about anywhere."

Hoffmann has noticed attitudes toward vegetarians are changing.

"I used to endure playful razzing at my dietary choice (and still do, to a much lesser degree). I now look forward to the questions I get from omnivores looking to make lifestyle changes: 'Hey, you’ve been vegetarian for a while; what would you recommend for ... ?'"

Hoffmann says he hates misinformation that sometimes is spread from groups such as PETA and Greenpeace that attack animal agriculture and crop-production methods such as transgenic or GMO. He says they engage in fear-mongering to push agendas that are not based on scientific evidence.

"I am one of the vegetarians who absolutely cannot wait to try these, as they essentially are meat, sans slaughter — muscle and fat cells are obtained from a living animal, then cultured and grown in a controlled setting. Yay, science! I doubt these products will replace or eliminate animal ag, but it’s definitely a good approach as far as sustainability."

Erin Ziesemer, Hortonville, has been vegetarian since July 2017.

"When it comes to finding vegetarian options at restaurants, I become frustrated," says Ziesemer. "The most typical dish to see on a restaurants menu for vegetarians is a grilled cheese. They're good, but most of the time the grilled cheeses are encased with so much cheese that It makes you feel as if you ate a huge whopper and need to nap to recover."

Going vegetarian did bring on "quite a bit of teasing from friends and family, but I knew that I was making myself a healthier version of me."

Now, family and friends are making less of a deal of the fact that she doesn't eat meat.

"My mom actually had begun to change her eating habits and she started to create and successfully make some amazing meatless meatballs, vegetarian chili and vegetarian lasagna."

Jim Booras, Oshkosh, says when he moved to Washington, D.C., in August 1977 he became an "Ovo-Lacto" vegetarian (tolerating eggs and dairy products).

"My new roommate was vegetarian and didn't want me to store meat in his refrigerator or use his pans and utensils with meat," says Booras. "Since I was unemployed and depending on his generosity, I easily agreed. My roommate was an excellent vegetarian chef, plus D.C. afforded all kinds of veggie options since it's such an international city. Indian food, in particular, offered unique, new, tasty vegetarian meals."

Since that time Booras says he lived in many cities across the United States before returning to Oshkosh. He doesn't consider himself a health food person, noting that a nice salad is not what he considers a great eating out treat.

Vegetarians recommend

Who better to ask for recommendations for vegetarian-friendly restaurants, than vegetarians?